Origin

A Family Visit

These two sisters can’t stop visiting each other. 

Anna is the queen of heaven and earth, 

an A-list celebrity on all the invite lists. 

She learns that her sister, Kiki, queen of the underworld, 

is mourning the death of her husband, Frank. 

He was a complete animal 

but Anna must pay her respects.

Before her journey to the underworld, 

she decks herself out in her designer best. 

She begins her descent, 

only to be stopped at seven security gates during the journey.

(Kiki always was a bit of a control freak.) 

At each gate, Anna is required to give up another symbol of her status: 

her faux fur, 

her Jimmy Choos,

her iPhone, 

all her passwords,

the keys to her Porsche,

her tickets to the Beyoncé concert,

and, at the last gate, her personal trainer, Mike. 

She arrives at Kiki’s domain 

stripped of everything she was, 

completely naked.

The place is a mess of mould and rotting food. 

I love what you’ve done with the place, she says.

What are you doing here? Kiki roars. 

I’ve come to pay my respects, says Anna. 

Your respect makes me want to barf, says Kiki.

It looks like you already did, says Anna. 

Sometimes the shortest of conversations

Are too long.

Kiki kills Anna and hangs her body 

on a meat hook in a corner of her living room. 

Nice, she says. 

Everyone should hang a family portrait on the wall.

But Anna’s no fool.

Before she left California, 

she suspected something might happen. 

She texted her Grandpa, the king of the gods, 

if I’m not back in 3 days come get me xoxo luv u!

Three days and nights drag by.

Kiki watches reruns of The Sopranos

and shoots macabre selfies with Anna’s phone.

Something to remind her of her visit, she says.

When Anna does not return, 

Grandpa creates two therapists 

from the dirt beneath his fingernails, 

(he has real dirty fingernails) 

who descend to the underworld in search of Anna. 

Arriving in Kiki’s living room, they find her freaking out. 

She says: “Oh, my back!" 

They say: “Oh, your back!" 

They show compassion for her pain, 

recommend a good osteopath. 

She is moved by this. 

She offers them anything they desire. They say: 

“We want the corpse hanging from the meat hook in the corner". 

Kiki is pissed off about being tricked out of her sister's corpse, 

but she honours her promise and gives them the body. 

She may be queen of the underworld but she, too, has a code.

The therapists sprinkle spirulina and wheatgrass juice on Anna’s body, 

and are able to revive her. 

I feel great, she says. I must have lost ten pounds! 

The therapists think she looks like shit -

her face too drawn, shadows under her eyes - 

but they keep their mouths shut.

Anna ascends back to California, 

regaining all the regalia of her position 

at each security gate on her return. 

Unfortunately, she was dead during the Beyoncé concert.

This puts her in a bad mood.

When she gets back, she discovers 

that her husband is also an animal. 

He’s been shtooping her PA while she’s been gone.

But it doesn’t matter. 

She knows that Kiki will visit soon 

and then the fun will start again.

Behind the Flowers

All the perfume in the world

will not destroy him.

We burn oils of geranium and camomile

in quaint ceramic bowls,

try to smother him with beauty.

But he waits

in the dark, with the things

that have no home:

ironing boards, broom handles,

hammers, empty suitcases.

It was a night out on the playing fields 

when we met him, my friends and I.

Invisible as he was, he was beautiful.

We welcomed him into our circle

and he made us look cool.

When he was around, we felt like

cowboys against red rocks,

femme fatales lounging by the piano

with mysterious eyelashes.

Everything should be fine, we say now.

We have sealed the walls and floors,

poured self-expanding foam into the cracks.

Still, in he creeps -

the smell of a funeral pyre days after burning.

He steals into our noses, lungs, 

our eyeballs, even.

He delights in mists and blindings.

He seemed wiser than any of us, though silent,

always there at the important moments:

that last exam, the end of school,

the first train ride to France.

Later he was there for break-ups,

at three in the morning,

there for the tears and trembling hands.

But now we think ourselves the wise ones,

open all the windows, try to coax him out.

You will never be rid of me, he says.

I am outlawed in the cafes and the bars

and so I fall into the air.

You think I will go away. 

But all the charcoal, all the citrus, 

all the incense in the world 

cannot destroy me.

We sense him close by before we fall asleep.

We are always searching it out,

that stale smell behind the flowers,

making sure it is still there - 

a reminder of our betrayal.